TODAY’S HISTORY

1649: England’s King Charles I was executed for treason. 1835: A gunman attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson near the U.S. Capitol and was subdued by a crowd, marking the first presidential assassination attempt.

1933: Adolf Hitler was sworn in as chancellor of Germany.

1948: Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist. 2005: Iraq held its first free elections in a half-century.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945), 32nd U.S. president; Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989), historian; Dick Martin (1922-2008), actor/comedian; Gene Hackman (1930-), actor; Vanessa Redgrave (1937-), actress; Dick Cheney (1941-), U.S. vice president; Phil Collins (1951-), singer-songwriter; Charles Dutton (1951-), actor; Christian Bale (1974-), actor; Wilmer Valderrama (1980-), actor; Kid Cudi (1984-), actor/rapper.

TODAY’S FACT: Charles I was the first king of England to be tried for crimes against his kingdom. He refused to enter a plea, insisting that the court had no authority over a monarch.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 2002, Karl Malone became the second NBA player (after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to score 34,000 career points.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

TODAY’S NUMBER: 5 — songs played by the Beatles in their last public performance as a group, a 42-minute impromptu concert from the roof of Apple Records in London, on this day in 1969. The band performed multiple takes of several of the songs before police shut the concert down.